Rattlesnake by Jon219 - Model Shipways - 1:64 - First Build

[JSGerson]

Waterboard - I assume you mean "waterways" (at least that's what my instructions for the Mamoli kit called it), the trapezoidal cross section strip of wood at the junction of the deck and bulwarks. The Practicum I was following indicated it went from the tip of the bow all the way back to the cabins under the quarter deck.

[Jon219]

Oops yes, waterways.  The kit doesn't supply enough wood to go from the tip of the bow back through the cabins.  I'm trying to visualize what can and can't be seen along the area where it goes.  It seems to be a cosmetic piece (not structrual) so it would seem that it's only critical where it will be seen.

[JSGerson]

You will find that that you will make mistakes, things break, the kit will have omissions, whatever. It would be good idea to invest in some basic wood stock as a reserve. Your local hobby store will usually have basswood which I believe is the basic wood stock for the MS kit. My Mamoli boat is built with a fancier wood package I purchased from HobbyMills  which means I have/need extra boxwood, holly, and swiss pear wood, Jeff Hayes, who runs this HobbyMills, will bend over backwards to get what you need, just ask anyone who has dealt with him.

 

If you are in a real pinch and must complete the waterways NOW, then yes you can skip areas that are unseen. I personally would try to avoid that because you would know you skipped part of the build. It will bother you and haunt you in your dreams (maybe) even though the casual observer won't even know it even exists or it's missing.

 

Remember, its a hobby, not a race. Time is on your side. I've been working on my boat for over four years and have just reached the masts.

 

Enjoy!

[Jon219]

I've added the knightheads and timberheads and while test fitting the forecastle deck covering boards decided that I'd be better off cutting the knighthead off at the deck covering board.  I read in Scott'a build log where he had done this and it looked to be the best decision for me as well.

 

I half cut and half sanded the waterways angle and that seemed pretty easy.  As I mentioned earlier there wasn't enough wood to go the entire length of the bulkheads and since the instructions say they're not needed in the cabin area I just decdied to cut the wood into two approximately equal lengths and go with where it stopped.  I do like the idea of making it complete that JSGearson suggested, but in the end I decided to use what I had thinking that if it starts to bug me I can add that last bit later, at least till I start planking.

 

I soaked the waterways in water for a couple hours and then I used twisty ties to pull the piece against the inside of the bulkheads to give it the correct shape.  The twisty tie idea was nice because I could move from one bulkhead to another slowly pulling the waterway tight and into the correct positions without putting too much strain on any one area first.  The twisty tie idea was bad in that it left a bit of a mark on the waterway at one bulkhead where it was wet, although I was able to sand that out pretty well.  The wire had dug into the wood there and if I do this again anywhere I'll need to find something to pad the wood where the wire is pushing against it so it doesn't leave a mark.

 

I also thought I'd try super glue on the waterways since there was still a few spots where the wood would need to be pulled into position.  I used the Gorilla Super Glue thicker formula and it seems to work well. The spots where the waterboard still needed to be pushed into position I just put a drop or two where it was going and then held in place for about a minute and it would stay in place.  Super Glue seems like a pretty good solution where the wood is naturally trying to pull away from the joint and the area holding it in place is pretty tiny.

 

I glued the two pieces of the forecastle deck covering board together thinking that it would be easier to get everything  in position that way (we'll see). 

 

The instructions on the aft cover board took me a while to decipher but I think I understand them and will start on that next.

 

This picture shows the waterboards glued and the upper deck covering board just sitting on the model.  It's funny, I see so many defects in the picture that I don't see when I'm working on it that I'm wondering if I should take more pictures and check my work using the pictures, but I'm also wondering if the camera perspective doesn't play tricks with angles.

 

 

[Jon219]

I'm finally getting around to trying some paint schemes on the transom and here's what I got. Nothing glued down at this time.

 

 

I couldn't find an orange that suited me in the paints I was using so I did some mixing to get this color, but I think I like it.  Did a couple of coats and smoothed with very fine steel wool between coats.  For the 4 true windows I found some flat clear plastic from some packaging and cut it up to the size of the 4 openings so they wouldn't push the frame out away from the transom.  For the fake window I ended up gluing the original wood cut out from that window back in the opening and painting it a fairly dark blue.  The instructions said light blue but I wanted something a little more subtle.  You can see the difference in this picture but just barely and I think I'm OK with that.  At some angles the plastic does give a reflection like real glass would.

 

For the transom decoration I painted the entire thing black and then used a Q-tip to dab the orange paint I used on the transom onto the high spots.  After that I had to touch up some of the black and the only thing I could find that was tiny enough to get into the crevices was a splinter of wood, so I cut a needle of wood and dipped it in the black to touch things up.

 

I've sanded some wood to the half round for the molding that goes below the window frames, but since there will be a very slight curve to the transom when it's glued on I think I should wait till after it's glued on to put those on.  I think I'll paint them white.

 

I've been reading what others have done for the lettering and I'm still trying to work out how I'll do that.  I wish I had fantastic paint skill and could hand letter them but I know that's way beyond anything I can do.

[JSGerson]

There was basically one method I found for creating the lettering in the various logs I looked at - transfer lettering; the letters are rubbed on from a sheet. The problem I had was the area I needed to place the ship's name was too narrow. So I created my own method which I described in my log at comment 337. In effect, the name was placed on a plaque like the one on the USF Constitution and then glued into place on the transom.

[scott larkins]

Jon

 

Making great progress.  The tansom looks great and the metal decoration piece came out really well. I too have found that pictures and angle or quality of light can bring out flaws that my old eyes did not see the first time.  Keep up the good work.

[pete48]

Nice work Jon, The Transom looks great

 

Best Regards,

Pete

[dgbot]

Great progress Jon.  Tip.  when you have to make a bend try and do it off the model.  Make a fixture then either soak the wood or steam it. When it become pliable affix it to the jig and clamp it down until dried.  Continue until done.  Then dry fit.  This method might take longer but less agravation.  Check out Bob Filipowski's build log on the English Long Boat.  He gives and excellant tutorial on lateral build using basswood.

David B

[JSGerson]

dgbot - I went looking for Bob Filipowski's build log on the English Long Boat as you stated above. I couldn't find it. I searched under his name, checked the member's list, and search all the long boat logs I found - no luck. Can you point me in the right direction?

[dgbot]

My apologies.  Go to the main forum page and go down to 18th century long boat.  On the first page look for Bob F-Tri-Club.  You can also look for D Cicero Tri-Club.

David B

[JSGerson]

Found it! Thanks

[Rowan]

Looking good.

[Jon219]

Thanks for all the encouragement and tips.  There is so much information and great builds on this site that a pointer to things that apply to what's is coming up is greatly appreciated.  Some vacation time this week so been at it a lot.

 

I've added the upper deck covering boards, the forecastle and quarter deck breast beams, glued the transom on the frame, and started installing the gunport framing.

 

Looking ahead I'm uncertain as to why I'd install the main, forecastle and quarter deck rails before doing the decking and planking.  It seems like they would be easy to damage as I do the planking and decking.  The instructions say to do them first but I can't see anything it will hurt by delaying this till the planking and decking is done (if this is a bad idea please let me know).

 

I made one of the cannons to help check the height of the gunport openings and then set some decking down on the bulkheads with one of the gunport framing sitting in place and the cannon on top to get a feel for where I think they should go.  I measured the distance from the top of the bulkhead to the bottom of the gunport frame and it was a tiny bit over 6mm.  Checked that on the plans and got the same thing so I think that's right.  It's always nice when the wood and the plans actually agree.

 

Just continuing to work on the gunport framing and preparing to do the main deck rails and carving the scrolls for the transitions.  Wow do those scrolls look tiny!

 

 

[Jon219]

Well I just realized that I had the quarter deck covering boards too short so off they came and I'm preparing to re-do them.  I'm pretty sure this is typical of ship kits plans,but it's odd that the information for a piece will be in so many different places in the plans.  The length will be in one spot, width in another and the positioning in another.  I looked and looked to see where the covering boards ended and just didn't find it until after I had done it.  No major harm done but I realized that i had glued them on quite well and they were a pain to get off.

 

Started trying to carve the scrolls and I began by gluing several short pieces of planking on top of each other to make a small block.  3 for the forecastle deck transition and 4 for the one to the quarter deck.  Different places in the plans show slightly different amount of transition on the quarter deck but it looks like there will be more than one rail width difference at this transition.  Hopefully when I get the quarter deck rails back on correctly I'll be able to tell how much transition I'll have.

[Jon219]

I've been trying to come up with something that works for the scrolls and after several attempts at what's described in the instructions that all looked horrible I've decided to try a slightly different direction and it's the best I've come up with so far.

 

I made another block by stacking planks and squared it up.  Then I put it on the ship and marked on the sides where the two rails would hit, knowing that everything below those lines had to be flat to fit into the existing boards.  Then I sanded and filed the top into a half round shape and then made the bottom half of the round by filing the top corners off.

 

 

Not easy to see in this picture and I have some more finishing work to do on it but I think this will work.  I can paint the round section to accent if I want.  Here is what it looks like just sitting on the ship.

 

 

 

[pete48]

Looks good Jon, Nice work

 

Best Regards,

Pete

[scott larkins]

That scrolled piece can be a bear.  I just used my exacto knife edge and carved it out.  Took me three attempts to get it right.  No way was I going to try the suggest method in the plans.  I'm not that precise when using my limited tools or skills.  And the real shame is, once you paint the rails, you'll never really see the scrolling.  Oh well.  Keep working on it.

[Jon219]

I've been working on the gun port and oar port framing and it's been made much more difficult by my inablilty to make square and equal length cuts in the 1/16' x 1/16" strips used to do the framing.  I've thrown away more than I've used so I went to my local Hobby Lobby to get some more wood (I saw that they had basswood strips earlier when shopping for paint).  I bought some 1/16" square and 1/8" square strips just to have some extra as I worked. 

 

When I got home and compared them to the strips that came in the kit they're a slightly different size than the Model Shipways wood.  When comparing against each other the Model Shipways wood seems to be slightly oversized ( the 1/16" square is almost 3/32") and the Hobby Lobby wood seems to be very slightly undersized.  I don't think this is a show stopper since it's framing and will be covered up by planking  and sanding the Hobby Lobby 1/8" will put me at the MS 1/16", but I'm not crazy about having different wood and if it was something that showed it would be a problem.  I guess the lesson here is that if I need to match something exactly then I should get it from the same source.

 

Was also looking for something that would help me make my cuts more square and I found this little plastic miter box from Midwest for about $7.  I've glued together a couple of the strips to make a stop and then cut three pieces from scrap wood to make wedges to hold the stop in place.  I'll see if I can cut more square and consistent length using this.  It also came with some small pegs to use to hold the wood while it's cut and I'm thinking that this might even be useful for forming shorter planking strips but I'm not there yet.

 

 

 

[dgbot]

What are you using to cut your parts with and what kind of stop are you using.

David B

[Jon219]

I'm using an exacto knife to cut, I've tried a couple different blades.  Before the stop in the picture above I was just measuring, checking against the plans and the cutting, always allowing a little length that could be sanded down.  My results with that method have been less than what I was hoping for so I'm trying to improve that method. 

 

Using the stop and miter box, they are better, but still not as square and consistent as I'd like.

Edited July 12, 2014 by Jon219

[Jon219]

Here's what I have on the gun ports so far.  As you can see the ports all suffer from bad angles and inconsistent size.  I'm hoping I can use a knife on the ports and even things out since the holes are the most critical piece.

 

[JSGerson]

Be careful with that plastic miter-box. Over time it has a tendency to be cut through by the steel blades used to make the cuts. I use a metal miter-box which looks very similar but without the peg holes. It has lasted many years of constant use and still going strong.

[scott larkins]

Framing is looking good.

[Jon219]

Gun/Oar Port Framing and Thoughts

 

I've finished the wood for the gun and oar ports, I still have some sanding and detail work to finish up.

 

It's easy to see where I switched from the wood that Model Shipways sent with the model and the wood that I purchased at Hobby Loby which is slightly bigger.  While the wood from Model Shipways is the correct width for the pieces to go from the hull to the interior planks I found that I prefer the slightly thicker wood for the framing.  This is because while the hull and interior planking are curved the framing pieces are straight.  This seems to cause some issues, especially at the ends of the ship where the curve is more pronounced.  In some places it's nearly impossible to get the four contact points of the framing sections to attach to the bulkhead without sticking out on one corner.  If it's sticking out on one side that means it's not flush with the other side and there will be a gap between the frame and planking when it's done.

 

By using the thicker wood for the framing pieces I found that it gave me more leeway and then I can just trim with a knife and sand the excess wood where it protrudes past the bulkhead lines.  Most of the time I was able to put the excess on the outside where it's much easier to trim and sand but every once in a while it had to be on the interior.

 

Installing the port framing also gave me an indication where I was on fairing the bulkheads and for the most part it wasn't too bad but there were a few places where I made bulkhead adjustments before putting in the framing.

 

Plan now is to finalize the fairing and then tackle planking the hull.  I've been reading all the different tutorials and like a lot of things for me I think they'll make more sense after I've started and see how it goes.  I'm still planning on waiting on the railings till after the hull and deck planking are done,  They look pretty fragile and I'm just afraid I'll break them.

 

 

 

[Jon219]

Temp Batten Strips

 

I've been reading everything I can on planking and I'm just getting a bit overwhelmed with it so I thought it would be best to at least start on the things that will be easy to undo if I mess them up.  So I've tried to lay out the plank belts using temp battens.  I have three belts with 6 planks each which is what the Rattlesnake instructions give.  I broke a couple of the 1/32" strips I was using while bending so I decided to soak the strips first to get a little more give to them.  I printed the planking fan and it's turning out to be a tremendous help.  In addition to eyeballing the battens I've been using it to compare spacing across the battens, much easier that a rigid metal ruler.  The spacing isn't perfect across the two sides but I think I have it about as close as I can get considering that they're not exactly the same.

 

Seemed that when I put the temp battens on I would also find out how well I've done on fairing and so far I haven't seen anything that I need to go back and fix.

 

If I understand this all correctly then once I'm satisfied with the positions of the battens then I'll use the planking fan and mark each plank on each bulkhead.  Once all that is marked then I can remove the battens and proceed with planking.

 

[JSGerson]

I am assuming that you will be painting your creation according to the MS instructions as well. That gives you an extra advantage over those of using natural wood. You can cover up most of your mistakes. You can use wood filler to fill in cracks between planks, and minor low areas, and then paint over the whole thing and nobody would be able to tell if and where you might have messed up a bit; so don't fret too much about minor consistences

 

I jumped in with no experience in planking at all and used natural wood so I couldn't hide my mistakes, and make them I did. It could have come out worse but it could have come out better had I known what I was doing. Take your time, and don't forget to bevel your planks on one edge otherwise each plank will appear to have a narrow space between them especially where the hull curves outward.

[Jon219]

Thanks JS, I do plan to paint this model.  It's good to know that gives me more leeway for mistakes as I'm sure there will be plenty of them.  I do like the look of the all natural wood model but thought I'd get this on under my belt before considering trying that.

[russ]

Jon:

So far your model looks very good.

 

Please allow to me add a word of caution though. I would strongly advise checking the fillers at each end for fairness. At the bow, you want the planks to come into the bow without much bend. It might be the camera angle, but it looks like there needs to be more material taken off the bow fillers. I would also check the stern fillers to make sure you do not have to bend the planks too much as they meet the tuck of the transom. For the most part this hull has very clean lines and there should not be any extreme bends, especially at the ends of the hull.

 

Russ

Edited July 19, 2014 by russ

[Jon219]

Thanks Russ, the bow blocks have been bugging me ever since I put them on and I don't think I've ever done any fairing when I didn't take some off of them.  I do fear they're still too large and I've been hoping that when I go to lay that first plank on them they'll show me where I need to trim more.  My goal has been to have the smoothest transition I can from the bulkhead to the blocks and into the rabbet at the keel.  I'm just having a hard time visualizing what that is, even when I use a fairing board.